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Health Service Forum South East
Minutes of a regular meeting of the Health Service Forum S.E. held in the Larkfield Centre 9 October 2007
Contents
Alterations and expansion on the SGH campus
Progress on IT and the Scottish NHS
Lack of jobs for Physiotherapists;
Welcome
Pat Lally welcomed everyone to the meeting and shortly after the Vice Chairman Eric Canning took over the chair.
Apologies
Margaret Hinds, Aileen Fyfe, Alastair Glen, Alastair Mitchell, Janette Butler, Rhoda Ritchie
Minutes
Minutes of the 11 September were adopted as correct. There were no matters arising.
Correspondence
OUT :a) Letter to Alan Seabourne, Project Officer for the New South Acute Hospital inviting him to address a Forum meeting on the current plans for the development of the SGH. No reply as at 31 October b) Letter to Christine Grahame, Convener of the Health & Sport Committee of the Scottish Government re high level of unemployment among new graduates of Physiotherapy. No reply as at 31 October
IN: Reply from Robert Calderwood, Chief Operating Officer of the GG& Clyde Health Board, re diagnostic equipment at the Victoria ACAD. As follows;
South Monitoring Group
James Sandeman reported on the South Monitoring Group meeting of the 14 September.
a)
There were no MSPs at the meeting.
b)
A discussion on the new south acute hospital revealed that as yet the number of beds has not been defined. This should be decided by the end of December 2007.
c) James has estimated that there will be approx 550,000 journeys per annum between the SGH and the Victoria based on the activity levels that have been given to us.
Alterations and expansion on the SGH campus
Mr Calderwood has replied to our letter and advised that the Outline business Case will be submitted to the Scottish Government at the end of January 2008. He wrote that ‘In all probability the Children’s Hospital will be available in the last quarter of 2011/first quarter of 2012 and the adult hospital will be commissioned in late 2012/early 2013.’
Progress on IT and the Scottish NHS
Professor McGregor has been in correspondence with the head of ehealth, Argyll & Bute CHCP, regarding the ownership of electronic records. He has already written to Nicola Sturgeon, received acknowledgement and will now pursue a reply. The progress on developing an IT system for the Scottish NHS is extremely slow. It was agreed that IT should be included in our response to the Government Consultation Better Health; Better Care.
GG&C Health Board
On the 23 October Sir John Arbuthnott, the retiring Chairman of the GG&C Health Board presided over his last Board meeting. Our representative had received bulky papers relating to the Agenda from the Board prior to the meeting. The covering letter stated that further papers would be available on the morning of the Board meeting for those able to download the information from the Board web site. Our representative neither had time to do this, nor the inclination, because of the number of pages and the weight of the paper involved.
The entire Agenda covered 31 items and the actual meeting started at 9.30 a.m. and ended at 1 p.m.!
We have written to the Health Minister to complain about this and the fact that there were no copies of the additional documentation made available to the general public attending the Board meeting.
Sir John reported on the well-attended annual review meeting held in the Concert Hall. He was aware that there is still work to be done with respect to engaging with the public. Many people attended expecting to be able to question the Board. In fact all questions had to be submitted in writing prior to the meeting. He doubted that an open meeting with open questions would be the best way forward. This would be quite daunting for those on the platform.
The Director of Public Health, Dr. de Caestecker, gave a detailed report of achievements to date and the problems that still require to be addressed. Health inequalities are widening; a huge increase in cirrhosis deaths in Glasgow; male healthy life expectancy in Glasgow is 46.7 years. Obesity is now the ‘new smoking’. Dr Kapesi highlighted the number of children he is seeing with type 2 diabetes.
Winter Plan
Dr Colville informed members that arrangements between NHS24, GEMS and GPs should ensure no repeat problems experienced previously over holiday periods. GPs have been reminded that the 24th and 31st December are normal working days (until 6 p.m.). NHS24 is no longer simply nurse led.
Waiting times
The Board is on course to achieve targets. The one area of concern relates to the 4 hour wait in A&E. The challenge is, “do you identify resources which will make 96% (fail) into 98% (achieve) and reduce other provision as a result?”
Complaints
Only 50% of complaints are responded to within target. The Ombudsman has been invited to visit in order to progress issues relating to recent findings.
Lack of jobs for Physiotherapists;
Mr Lloyd-Jones, Policy Officer, of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, has agreed to speak to Forum members at our meeting of the 11 December. We are particularly concerned about the lack of opportunity for newly graduated physios to find employment in the NHS and thereby gain the necessary experience to further their careers and even more importantly to be of use to patients.
November Meeting
Chris Drapper, Transport Projects Manager for GG&C Health Board, will attend our 13 November meeting and speak to us on the following topics;
- Hospital Evening Visitor Transport Service.
- Housebound Project {a pilot running in the East and South West CHCP areas).
3.
Transport for the Physical Activity (‘Falls’ programme) exercise classes – NHS classes and NHS/Culture & Sport Glasgow (combined) classes.
- Integrated Transport Pilot within Glasgow City.
Come along and take this opportunity to quiz Mr Drapper on any of the above topics.
Date of next meeting Tuesday 13 November 2007 at 7.30 p.m.
in the Larkfield Centre.
